![]() God damn it, if I put you on that committee, will you work? Will you go in there and work hard? Will you start early in the morning and burn the midnight oil if necessary?' I said, 'I'll talk to George Mahon -he's a good friend of mine and a pretty able fellow, he lives in the same apartment building as I do-and I'll get you on his defense subcommittee. I said to him, 'I have only one question about you. I think you are ready to go on the Appropriations Committee.' I knew he was unhappy because he felt he wasn't getting anyplace. I know your background, your experience, and your character. So I called him into my office one day and I said to him, 'Bill, I know you, and I knew your father before you. I thought he was about ripe-he had had about four terms of experience. He had been serving on the - committee and on government operations, where he had been getting into some of the defense aspects. Sometimes we give it to a person who has been standing in line for some time. But no changes have been made there for years." They could change the result there, too, and claim that this man or that man had been treated badly. Then that committee reports back to the conference. That's because we've done a pretty good job, if I do say so. Now they could make a fuss there and change this and change that, but I can't remember when that has happened. "Then we report back to the full committee. The executive committee of the Republican Committee on Committees consists of the large states plus one from the freshman delegation and one from the small states-these two are added, "so they won't say they've been shut out." We make up a sheet on each man-his biography, his votes in the election, the recommendations he has from here and at home." Is he able? What's his background? Has he got the stuff to stand up under pressure? Or can he be gotten to by other interests? We go into that pretty thoroughly. We go back in his community, and we ask around. We don't just go by the fact that he's been elected. "The leadership-and I'm in the leadership, I and three or four others-begins to talk about this right after election. We ask ourselves, will he be-I don't want to say conservative-but will he be as thrifty with other people's money as he is with his own money? Is he a sound business man? If this were his money, would he invest in this bank or in this program? Don't you see what I mean? We can't spend more than we take in," etc., etc. "We don't want anybody who will just spend and spend and spend. Brown (R-OH), Republican Committee on Committees Interview Notes IndexĪccess to this interview is subject to the deed of gift of December 14, 1993.
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